“This is Where it Ends” is a book wrote by Marieke Nijkamp that came out on Jan. 5, 2016 and has been a number one New York Times Bestseller book. This book has opened a lot of eyes to school shootings and what kids go through when this kind of experience happens. The book is written in four different perspectives during the shooting of the school. These four perspectives are Claire Morgan, Tomás Morales, Autumn Brown, and Sylvia Morales. Each of these students relate to one another as well as the shooter Tyler Brown.

The book starts off with the first day of the semester for Opportunity High School and Principal Trenton makes a “Start-of-Semester” speech in the auditorium of the school. Claire is at a special track practice out on the track with the coach and two other students. Autumn and Sylvia are in the auditorium waiting to be released to start class while Tomás skips the speech and tries to go through the principal’s office looking for a file with his friend, Fareed. When Principal Trenton ends her speech, the doors become locked and no one is able to escape the auditorium and that’s when the bullets start to fly.

The shooter, Tyler Brown, is Autumn Brown’s older brother and he dropped out of school. Autumn tries to go to New York for dance school and wants to take Sylvia with her because they are a couple in this book. Not only is there a school shooting but a couple with two girls. This book talks about a lot more than school shootings.

“This is Where it Ends” has real life situations. When I first read this book, I could not put it down. It left me on the edge of my seat. The real life scenario shows how school shootings affect students and teachers. This book made me cry at the end because of how it ended and what happened throughout the whole entire thing.

This was the first book I read by Nijkamp  and I recommend her stories to people because of how she writes and what the topics can be about. “This is Where it Ends” gave me thoughts on students and how they dealt with a tragedy like this one. I give this book a 10 out of 10 because of the message it gives as well as the emotion behind each word.